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Child Marriage

HRW urges MPs not to pass draft bill

Staff Correspondent
The Human Rights Watch has urged the parliamentarians of Bangladesh to stand against and scrap a new draft law that puts girls at greater risk of child marriage in the country.
Heather Barr, senior researcher for HRW's Women Rights Division, yesterday criticised the draft legislation, saying that it poses grave risks to girls by creating vague exceptions to the country's ban on child marriage, and even punishing the victims.
On November 24, the cabinet approved the draft "Child Marriage Restraint Act, 2016".
The next step is for the draft law to go to the parliament, expected in the coming weeks. Outcry against the draft law in the Bangladesh press and civil society has been fierce.Bangladesh's parliamentarians now have a crucial chance to stand up for girls, the researcher said.
She said the current law permits marriage after the age of 18 for women and 21 for men, with no exceptions.
However, the new draft law reportedly says child marriage below age 18 will be permitted in "special circumstances, such as accidental or unlawful pregnancy." The draft does not set any minimum age for such "exceptional" marriages, Barr mentioned.
"This is a major step backward," reads the statement, adding that although Bangladesh's law on child marriage was widely ignored, the existence of a strict law meant the focus was on enforcement.
Weakening the law is a setback for the fight against child marriage, and sends a message to parents across the country that the government thinks child marriage is acceptable in at least some situations, she said.
According to the US-based rights body's statement, Bangladesh has one of the highest rates of child marriage in the world, and the highest rate in Asia. Fifty-two percent of girls in the country marry before 18, and 18 percent are married before they turn 15.
It said child marriage is deeply destructive to the lives of married girls and their families; it pushes girls out of school, leaves them mired in poverty, heightens the risk of domestic violence, and carries
grave health risks for girls and their babies due to early pregnancy.
Ironically, the new draft law came out of a promise by Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, in 2014, to end child marriage. She pledged, by the end of 2014, to reform the law to set tougher punishments for child marriage; finalise a national action plan on how to end child marriage under 15 by 2021, and end all marriage before 18 by 2041, said Barr.
Two years later, there is no national action plan, and while the draft law does set tougher penalties -- including, in another wrong-headed move, a penalty of 15 days imprisonment and a Tk 5,000 fine [ $631 for children who marry -- it also weakens existing law by making some child marriages legal, said the HWR's senior researcher.
It is also difficult to know just what is meant by "unlawful pregnancy" in the act. The law could lead to a situation where girls who have been raped are forced to marry their rapists, Barr opined.